August 8, 2018:

Sukkah Jam Challenge:

Charlie- One MPLS participant planning to be in northern Minnesota in a cabin, perhaps she can send photos of the cabin ahead of time. Basically, if it’s like Eurovision, everyone being filmed that day (Sep 25) has to be Sukkot-themed.

Lionel and Gideon- Bottom line- help us collect media beforehand, action item for first hub meeting: discuss where hub/ individual participant should be to co-create Sukkah Jam Session.

Ideas for hub meeting:

16 personalities test or Avraham Infeld clip

New Concept: Second Doing:

Eilat- Oct 25- the date of the challah bake-off (national in the US but possibly int’l). Idea- encourage participants to organize their local one as part of Doing #2.

August 15, 2018

Brenda- has invited alumni to breakfast on Global Day of Doers, will ask them to offer assistance. Some alumni requested to be part of the discussion. Brenda’s debating: to what? When? How to facilitate this? Lionel asked to record the breakfast and promote alumni into the network and not just with the new local participants.

Charley- Still guiding particpants doing from last year, hoping for an alumni to facilitate one of the local hub days. He and Lionel would like to incorporate alumni into the PALs hub sessions.

Lionel- perhaps bringing the three Emek HaMaayanot trio to talk about how to create bonding.

Efi- Alumni already engaged in partnership activities, delegations. He and Tiltan are still thinking about the right format for engagement because it’s a small community. They want to ease the entrance into the tech tools and program by having the alumni guide the participants. (1) Dikla and Elad have started the initiative local doers network (as a continuation from their Unity Day) in order to engage in local doers. (2) Dikla and Elad would like to establish an external program for those who’d like to establish a network of doers, under Tiltan. But it won’t focus on Israel-Diaspora relations. He’s not worried that it will take focus away from 248 because people in the area are interested in Israel-diaspora relations.

Faryn- Jason is active and trying to get others on board for 248, Craig is still working on Digital Birthright. They haven’t decided how exactly they’d like to engage their alumni.

Israelis Face to Face:

Brenda- Sees the advantages and disadvantages of Friday, thinks we should do a poll. Also, people will resent leaving the house so soon before Israel week. Perhaps split into 2 groups?

Efi- Perhaps but will be nicer for everyone together.

Screening updates:

Frayn- Jessica Stein is trying to get approved via her boss to take leave on Israel week. Same with two other potential participants (Spencer + another). She’s looking for her second participant. Spencer would like to be included in the hub meetings. She’s working post-Horizons participants and has a standby list.

Brenda- Recruited 5 diverse participants but one just pulled out but recommended a family member.

Charley- Participant Adam Schwartz already has a couple of initiatives he’d like to carry out. Another one has finished a 3-year stint with Moishe House, which is a great step for MH alumni to stay engaged. Nicole Rabinowitz recently moved back and is using 248 as professional development, since she works at a Jewish organization called J-Hab. Sarah McVicker from St. Paul (and with their hearty blessing!) she advocates and active against substance-abuse. Another one is not sure she can make it to the events so he and Eilat are waiting to see.

PALs- approximately 12 candidates, 8 who passed interviews. The group is very diverse in background and interest and will take extra effort to maintain their involvement.

Efi- 7 participants who cover the diversity in Israeli society and all have strong intentions to do. They came to 248 due to their curiosity in world Jewry. Average age: 34 years old, married with kids. Therefore they asked of Cleveland for similar participants for easier engagement and valuable discussion. Will have first meeting

Gideon- Cleveland- has a time issue but we’ll welcome them in October.

Einat- had a good screening session, 2 were selected.

Tucson + Hof Ashkelon Kiryat Malachi- time issue.

Golan- screening day is tomorrow.

New community in the south- might join, working on it.

Time of Coordinator Call:

Next week, August 22: 15:00 Israel time, 8am FL, 7am MN

Global Day of Jewish Doers

Start thinking about what to do...

August 22, 2018

Roles of Coordinators, supervisors and headquarters

Lionel: There is a healthy tension between nurturing the network and nurturing the local participant, but it requires navigating together.

Eilat: Suggested to bring Robyn Neidorf’s Network Weaving Session’s conclusions to all coordinators for conversation. Lionel agreed and said we would.

Einat: The more knowledge the coordinators have, the better equipped and experienced the coordinators will be. She feels like she felt like a participant last year- she says there’s a difference because the participant is a volunteer and she gets paid to coordinate.

Gideon: First step towards empowering coordinators was building the first hub sessions together. Another distinction: Live Zoom calls are optional for coordinators.

Eilat and Charlie: Believes that one of the coordinators should be on the call in order to be a good role model. But they also realize that they’re in that capacity to switch off. Also, no need to recreate the wheel with a certain exercise- utilize the time properly and use a good methodology from last year.

Lionel: There’s a level of freedom for each coordinator to do what he/she feels is right for their participants.

Gideon: Newsletters- on the one hand, it may be good for the coordinator to receive the material first. On the other hand- it may defeat the purpose of the network and will give the coordinator extra work and extra monitoring. Is it important for you to receive the newsletter 24 hours beforehand?

Brenda: No, because they’ll be the first ones to open it anyway.

Einat: Needs to know even if it’s in a couple of sentences.

Faryn: Either way.

Lionel: Would a whatsapp audio summary help?

RESOUNDING YES!

Brenda: What if a participant’s English isnt’ so good- should a coordinator facilitate as translator? Should I pair him up with another participant to read the material?

Eilat: Suggestion- pair him up with an MPLS participant of Russian-Israeli background and another one with good Hebrew.

Lionel: Great suggestion, Zoom Zone is a good place to do this.

Einat: Last year, a participant whose English was not very good, paired up with her fellow participant and they read the material together each week, going to the other’s home.

Lionel: PALs could also help

Leveraging business trips that are already happening with 248 interests:

Gavriella: Let us know ahead of time who’s coming to Israel and we'll try to coordinate meet-ups that will be fruitful to both programs/ organizations.

Article: Enough Innovation Already

Charlie: Crux of the article- when you get to real practical impact on a societal level- replication is where it’s at because it’s already seen success. So you can redo that and it will work.

Gideon: In any case, adaptations need to be made in order to suit it to your own community. In that way, much original work is done and it may be slightly innovative.

Lionel: Localization is the term used in start-ups, since you need to suit it to your local surroundings. This is something we’re looking to do this year.

Charlie: The book “The innovator’s Dilemma”- once you’ve successfully innovated, you are replicating your own idea. The most successful innovators are the ones that replicates successfully. How do we empower our participants to become replicators of innovative ideas, and then get other community members to replicate that idea? The most important part- whether you pull an idea into your own community or push it into another community- it’s a two way street and it would be most successful if you were to involve the one who invented it (the innovator). Innovator working with the replicator.

Gavriella: Here’s a great opportunity to connect alumni with current participants.

Eilat: Not that we’re saying do not do anything new. If they’d like to innovate, that’s great.

Gideon: P2G example is ReArt, maybe we’ll talk about that in another session.

August 29, 2018

Session 0 and Resource Center:

Please see recordings.

Please coordinate with your participants which prop you’d like to hold up in front of the screen in order to represent your hub.

Sukkah Jam Challenge:

Date has been moved to Wednesday, September 26. As explained in the email, encourage participants to do an event that day, but if they can’t- we can show any other type of media piece. For example: Preparing the project, building the sukkah together, showing how Sukkot is celebrated in different communities. So please send Lionel through email / whatsapp a clip or photos or recordings ahead of time.

Host Shabbat:

Sigal: We have a group of religious and non-religious people, so all the food should be kosher but in general, they’re used to working and living together.

Gideon: In JAFI programs there are no formal programs on host shabbats but usually social meetups happen that respect those who keep Shabbat.

Einat: Last year we had the formal part on Friday morning- early afternoon where they visited schools. Unfortunately there isn’t much that can be shown Friday-Shabbat. But she targeted initiatives that schools are part of. They also had a Shabbat meal together last year. So this year, on Shabbat they will all travel to an area outside of Nesher for a social gathering.

Lionel: A Shabbat meal is great to include PALs into P2G events.

Brenda: We had a great schedule last year (please see shared document).

Times of Coordinator Calls:

Gideon: Suggestion to alternate- one week Wednesday at 15:00 / 15:30 and the following week at 17:00. We’ll send out an email and check with everyone.

December 2- You are invited for a preliminary tour of Beit Yigal Allon, where we will be having the Doathon. We will be giving a virtual tour for the American coordinators. Date not final but please pencil it in. רצינו להזמין אתכם לסיור מקדים של המקום ב-2 בדצמבר. התאריך עדיין לא סופי אך רשמו ביומנים ונעדכן בהמשך.

We received comments from participants and have had 2 meetings with our legal advisor. We don’t want to initiate a re-signing for everyone. However, if anyone else raises a question, we’d like to you be aware. קיבלנו מספר הערות לגבי ההסכם משתתפים, ישבנו עם היועצת המשפטית ותיכף נשלח גרסאות חדשות אך רק למי שביקש.

Einat: One of my participants needs to know the specific details, the other would sign anything. But since the first raised questions, the second wants to hear the answers too.

Survey #1 review

Last year we had 6 surveys, we thought it would be good to deliver the first survey at the beginning of the year. So tell your participants to expect a survey in the coming few days. Their input is important so please remind them in your next hub meeting. Hopefully at the end of the year, we’ll be able to see the effect of the program on various aspeמשובcts by reading all the surveys. For example, why are people joining 248, how to people feel regarding Israel/ diaspora, etc. לאורך השנה יישלחו שאלונים למשתתפים בנוגע לתכנית, ישראל/תפוצות וכו' בכדי ללמוד מזה.

Myers-Briggs Personality Test: Can be found on session 7 from last year. Not a must for this year, if there’s another personality test that you’d like to use, that’s fine. However, keep in mind that there’s value in doing the SAME test in order to share afterwards between hubs. המבחן אישיות לא חובה, אך יוכלו לדבר על זה במידה וכולם יעשו אותו מבחן.

Oct 3, 2018

Einat: Less people than they hoped for, each person came for half an hour and left, and so on. They got a small budget and Boris and Tal bought snacks. The target was young adults, Tal and Boris prepared everything on their own. Einat wishes Tal and Boris had taken more of a lead, ownership of the project, but she enjoyed it. EInat watched the other Sukkah Jam Challenges and felt it was special, thinks it could be more structured for viewing time.

Gideon: A questioned that should be discussed- How much do you let the participants lead the activity? For example, a participant who shares his/her idea throughout the hub session. It’s important to have a balance and to guide the participants while also letting them speak / act on their own. חשוב למצוא איזון בין הובלת מפגש ההאב (עם מבנה) לבין ליווי המשתתפים וזרימה עם מה שחשוב להם להתייחס אליו.

Sigal: Had a very nice meeting in the Golan, planned everything together, shared responsibilities so each one knew what their job was. It was participants and their families. Everyone had to bring something to share (1- with the kids, 2- with the adults), and something to eat. For the kids, the activity was to prepare packages for soldiers shaped like little sukkahs. And for the adults, Aviner led a group learning session on HaRav Kook. They are having an article published on the activity in the local paper, will send it to us.

Brenda: My participants also prepared everything on their own, worked very hard. She just made it clear what was expected of them, that each should try to organize a ‘mifgash’. Mulu and Hagit participated in Sukkot activities despite not being able to be

They concluded that it's hard to get people to come for a serious-issue meeting over Sukkot.

Charley: The Sukkot Jam Challenge was very challenging for Americans with bad weather and no vacation, day after day their projects got canceled due to rain. However, he’s proud of their participants’ willingness and deep level of commitment to the program. The plan was to get together at his Sukkah for dinner, share personal stories and have a chill evening before the Sukkah Jam and then be together for the live. הג’אם היה מאד קשה להם (התבטל 3 פעמים) ולא בהכרח מתאים לאמריקאים. יחד עם זאת, הוא גאה במשתתפים שלו שניסו לקפוץ למים והביעו רצון גדול.

Lionel: This is important to show the difference between being a Jew in Israel as opposed to being a Jew abroad.

Faryn: Captured the professional and educational leaders’ toast in the sukkah. Despite having difficulties in enlisting participants, she’s working hard on it- plus raising awareness for next year.

Lionel: Very proud of his and Charley’s PALs. Marton shared the whole process, and thought of another idea even though his Fauda screening party was slashed.

Recent Hub Meetings:

Brenda: Last night they met at 248nik Shiri Solomon Bar-Shalom, who is part of an urban kibbutz. Shiri explained. Each participant explained their goals for their future Doings. Shiri- unified parent-teacher forum of kindergarten students. Beni- activities for people of all religious levels in the city. Gideon and Brenda guided them from esoteric to specific achievable goals.

Update on Israeli F2F:

Gavriella: The Israelis have voted to meet FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23 BETWEEN 10:00- 12:00.

The exact location will be sent out soon, but in general, the meeting will take place in the Hadera area, easily accessible and not too long of a drive for any of the Israeli hubs.

Tiltan: This may backfire in my face, but if we ask people to drive for two hours, shouldn’t it be a longer activity?

Gideon: It’s hard regarding Shabbat- if anything, we may decide to make it earlier. We’ll think about it.

Speakers:מרצים אורחים

Gideon:

Oct 23: Yonatan Ariel

Nov 6: Michael Uram

Nov 27: Yossi Abramowitz

Pre-tour of Doathon location:

Gideon: Gavriella has sent out invitations for Israeli coordinators who are able to join us for a preliminary tour at Beit Yigal Allon, we will record for everyone in any case. Send us your ideas of anything you’d like to talk about together, be it Doathon ideas or coordinating challenges. במידה ותוכלו להצטרף לסיור מקדים, זה יהיה מעולה, גבריאלה שלחה זימונים. תעלו הצעות בנוגע לנושאים לשיחת העשרה/ שיחה חשובה בינינו כרכזים.

Alumni Engagement:

Lionel: Very happy that so many alumni participated in the Sukkah Jam Challenge Live!

Charley: One or two are planning to lead one of their hub sessions, very excited and looking forward to how they continue being active! שני בוגרי התכנית ממיניאפוליס הולכים להעביר מפגש האב!

Oct 10, 2018

After this week’s coordinator call (October 17 at 17:00 Israel time), we will hold BI-WEEKLY coordinator calls, alternating between 17:00 and 15:00.

Global Session feedback (Think Global Act Local):

Einat: Thought overall it went well, however- if coordinators are needed in order to guide the breakout rooms, requests that they are notified ahead of time (more than two days notice). Also, since everyone happened to be Hebrew speakers in the breakout room, they spoke Hebrew, which may be a problem should an English speaker watch the recording.

Gideon: Now that they’ve been exposed to 6 different global initiatives, we’re thinking to perhaps create sub-groups of interest. In addition to the local groups, these sub-groups of interest would enable them to meet others on a more personal level.

Eilat: good idea, creates order and gives the participants a direction. It would also give them a comfort zone, to work on something together, yet independently.

Efi: Sounds good, on the one hand they don’t have to build from scratch and on the other, the connect with it. Plus the process gives them an experience of implementing an initiative in their hometown, which feels very correct at this point in the year.

Gideon: Next week, you guys will begin exploring with the participants what their passions is. Both replicating an existing idea and also something totally new are both welcome. Your hub session next week will be the first step in preparing them towards the Doathon in 2 months.

Gideon: Tomorrow we’re heading up to Beit Yigal Allon, hopefully we’ll send out a draft schedule to go over together.

Eilat: She and Charley would like to have 2 hub meetings re the itinerary. Also, the partnerships need to know the schedule. 3 of her participants have bought their flight tickets.

Gideon: In addition to the basic schedule Gavriella sent out, he emphasized that it will be four days concentrated in the north of Israel and that there are several hours on the last day in case anyone would like to visit a tourist attraction (Tel Aviv/Jerusalem). We will provide a bus directly from Karei Deshe youth hostel to the airport, we’ll see how many people would like to be dropped off on the way and what the participants’ flights are.

בימים הקרובים נשלח לו"ז לדואתון שנעבור עליו ביחד.

Next hub: What’s Your Passion?

Efi: Remembers we worked on it together in our co-creation, requested the list. They usually begin with a Personality Test.

Gideon: Tried to think of what happens when a terrorist attack happens in Israel: words, gatherings and donations.

Einat: Usually it’s important that they know we support and care for them. In the school shooting in Florida last year for example, they offered but there was no need for physical support.

Lior: I agree. Ilanit (Clevel) met the Israel and Overseas director from Pittsburgh- the thing they need the most is to see our compassion. Photos of different communities singing songs, raising American flags, sending letters.

Sigal: Still thinks we should do something together, as the 248 group.

Charley: Really appreciates all that was said- emphasizes that Americans need Israelis to understand what they’re going through. Agrees with Sigal in doing something as a group, talked about the replication of Jewish Doings surrounding the event, such as vigils. MPLS hub was thinking about opening a discussion on the Pittsburgh tragedy during their upcoming Shabbat Unplugged.

Gideon: Shared the Stars of Hope Impact Study, plus an interesting article on how we can help by understanding what the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, and American Jewry as a whole, is going through- in the midst of such diverse opinions about everything. The article stresses the beauty of unity despite such conflicting opinions.

Gavriella: If your participants/ alumni have something they’d like to talk about, remind them there’s the Zoom Zone.

Sigal: The Pittsburgh tragedy can be used as a trigger, since

Eilat: An initiative has gone nationwide among American communities: Solidarity Shabbat, happening in synagogues,to prove that Jews are not afraid to enter synagogues, despite this event.

Lionel: We are here to facilitate and set up the platforms (Zoom Zone), but we need to remember that the Jewish community continues to live and doesn’t surround this tragedy. It shouldn’t lose its relevance (we could ask Mike Uram, he’s from Pennsylvania) but it shouldn’t be the focus.

Good ideas to show understanding and solidarity with the Pittsburgh community:

Gideon: Still thinks it would be best that participants come with a basic idea of an initiative. But it will be interesting and inspiring enough even without coming with an idea. It can be an idea that was done previously.

Eilat: Requests schedule, expectations and roles to be sent out to all coordinators.

Lionel: Event registration is required for everyone (according to type of ticket) because we need to order lunch. November 17- if someone registers afterwards, they’ll have to pay their own lunch.

If you can think of P2G partners who would be relevant to the Doathon- invite them!

Lionel: From the PALs, they’re going to do a Global Day of Jewish Learning- Debra is here for her Fed event. They will hold a learning session with different communities from Budapest to NY to Krakow. He has a call with Keren from the Global Day of Jewish Learning for more materials and to explain on 248.

Gideon: There have been a few engaged participants but it could be more- how can we nurture them?

Charley: Encourages everyone to go into the resource center together, show them exactly what you mean and where. When there’s a discussion he wants to promote, he sends a text/ email or adds a note to an email. If you hear something that one of your participants say that is relevant to the whole group, encourage them to post on the resource center.

Efi’s leaving P2G :((( אפי עוזב את השותפות

Efi explained that the decision was hard for him, since it also means leaving 248. He’s going to work on a program in Beit Shean under the Rashi Foundation. He said that he had the privilege to work for 248 and will hopefully come to the Doathon and be involved in other ways.

We thank Efi for his tremendous dedication! He has always strived to improve the program and we will miss him greatly! But we wish him the best of luck in his next Jewish Doing and we’re sure we’ll cross paths in the future!

Despite initially having 2 participants, they canceled and Faryn’s been trying to enlist others, but the federation has decided to pull out. The implications are which are:

They won’t be hosting the Global Summit ⇒ don’t buy tickets to the US yet!!!!!

Nesher doesn’t have a partner and may be hosted by another hub.

Doathon Initiatives: A round of updates עדכונים

Meirav (Golan): In the last Golan meeting, they wanted to do something as a regional council for the towns surrounding the Gaza strip. They want to host organized groups and were part of the brainstorming that became part of the regional council’s plans.

Gideon: The more a participant comes to the Doathon with an formulized idea, the more he’ll get out of it. So no pressure, but we recommend them to start sharing in their hubs, and we’ll send a google form to help them focus in. So if we take for example helping out Israelis from the south, we can use that and refine it.

Lionel: Keep in mind that we’re looking for easily created easily replicated. So we should work on how to make the desire to join a relevant cause (border with Gaza, Pittsburgh) into an initiative that truly answers the need.

Lior (Clevel.): We’re meeting the first time today (!!), I’ll bring it up and already start focusing on the initiatives.

Meirav: Didn’t understand that we need to start getting them ready for the Doathon regarding thinking about initiatives. But everyone’s already very involved in what they’re passionate about.

Gideon: Perfect, that’s what they should continue developing into an initiative for their 2nd doing.

Einat: The 2nd doing is unclear, what’s the framework? It confuses them not having a certain date.

Lionel: We added the 2nd doing, extending the doing aspect, came from our reflection and feedback sessions from last year. We understand that the global initiatives that we introduced (see global session 3) were too close to the Sukkah Jam Challenge, but we can also look for more inspiration towards Pesach. Natalia, for example, is a PAL who is managing the Limmud in Poland. That’s definitely one of her doings, as long as she brings it to the table and engages with other participants.

Einat (Nesher): I told my participants that in order to make the program worth your while, you have to be involved. If they don’t do any initiative by the end of the year, they could say it was a waste of time, but if they engage with the other participants and part of the conversation they will get a lot out of it. So though they don’t have an idea yet I’m sure they’ll be great.

Gideon: Recommends next hub session to allocate some time to log on to the resource center together and have each person write something.

Brenda (Rehovot): Brought in someone from the steering committee as a sounding board to discuss with her the possible ideas. Two who were there are getting close. Beni- working on a platform for dialogue between different kinds of people. Mulu- still a bit in the air, maybe bringing Ethiopian history to the public. Shiir- has an idea to work with leadership in kindergartens, had first meeting in her sukkah. Hagit- Neighbors in the living room- wants meetings in her living room and bringing out inspiring stories from her neighbors to bring them closer together.

Charley: Might be worthwhile to connect her with Greg Arenson with the agenda being the relationship itself.

Lionel: I’d ask to funnel these conversations back into 248, because for ie. we know that Greg is doing a lot but not sharing. It’s a challenge of networks.

Charley: There’s a great article about how cultural Judaism has failed and if we don’t return to religious Judaism we’re doomed. But he thinks that independent Jewish things happen without it ever being documented.

Lionel: If Jewish Doers do something without telling, does it count? Why do we do a Doathon altogether to think of ideas all together?- we can bring this up on Sunday of Israel week.

Charley (MPLS): Shabbat Unplugged but earlier around the twin cities. Sarah Teske published about it on JewFolk. They understand the concept of replication well. They’re making it personal and, with Charley’s help, doing it in their own personal networks first. Then let the twin cities know and inviting them and hopefully doing the national one in March. Also, he’s working with Brenda re a MPLS-Rehovot call.

Lionel: Did a virtual Global Day of Jewish Learning, wherever they were in the world. Question was which historical/biblical character would you take to the amazing race. Lionel met up with Deborah in Israel in her Fed, Natalia with her Shabbat Limmud, Marton was active in his Global Day of Jewish Doing. Lerone not sure.

Please ask your participants who would like to volunteer. Brenda- Beni?

What's the coordinator's role during the Doathon תפקיד הרכז בדואתון * Logistical- bring sticky notes, move rollups, etc.* Content- does anyone want to lead a session? See below.* Bring to our attention things to take care of- in case there are too many people who.don't understand what to do.* Guiding your participants in their Doing journey.